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another random user writes with news that Microsoft has sorted out the Windows Store guidelines such that games rated 'Mature' in the U.S. will be allowed. An earlier version of the guidelines took cues from the European PEGI rating system, which lumps pornographic content into the same rating as mainstream games that involve violence. In the U.S., they're split up into Adult (for porn) and Mature (for things like Skyrim, Call of Duty, and Assassin's Creed). Gamers and developers were worried that a large number of very popular games were going to be disallowed on the Windows Store. Microsoft hopes to have the situation fixed by December — not ideal, since Windows 8 is now out, but better than nothing.

Something awful used to review A rated games, though they either reorganized their site, or stopped in 2008. The Review of RapeLay [somethingawful.com] is a classic, though having absolutely no interest in actually playing such games, I can't comment on its "accuracy."

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [soft core porn]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the [content] involved in this case is not that.—Justice Potter Stewart, US Supreme Court

Welllll...yes and no. Would I want my kids playing at age 9 the game equivalent of "I spit on your grave"? Nooo, not because I didn't educate my kids and explain the difference between reality and gaming, its that when you are younger your brain simply doesn't have the emotional level of maturity to handle things you can later.

Using an example from my own childhood there are three scenes from shows that fricking gave me nightmares that today would actually be considered kind of tame. From Night Gallery the story where Roddy McDowell kills his uncle and the painting changes, one that was either Night Gallery or Outer Limits where a woman calls her dead son back from the grave only to find what she calls back was NOT her son (the scene where the demon in the kid's body explains "Timmy killed himself to GET AWAY FROM YOU while every time the lightning flashed the kid's face became the demon? truly scary shit) and the final one an old Hammer horror that appeared to be in B&W...until they stabbed the first vamp nearly 20 minutes in and the screen erupts in arterial spray.

Now once you are an adult if you want to tie little old ladies to passing buses in Just Cause II (always fun) or play something like Rapelay? Knock yourself out, have a ball. But a parent simply can't keep up with every damned new release on the planet so having set guidelines we can use along with a more detailed explanation following it? I honestly have no problem with that, because it gives the parent the choice and control.

Oh and I hate to reply to myself but...does anybody remember what episode from what series it was that I was talking about earlier, where the mom brings the kid back from the dead? I've been looking for that thing for ages, I'd love to watch it on Halloween, but damned if I know who was in it, just that kick ass scary ending where the power is out and the demon in the kid's body is heading towards her and the lightning lets you see its true face...damned scary and I'd love to watch it along with some classi

Thanks, and you were close,I think its actually "Dead Of Night" which I believe the original trilogy of terror was based on, I'm trying to track both it and the original trilogy down to see which it is, since I saw this thing in like 78 or so on cable. If you ever get a chance to see it though that scene where the lightning shows the kid's "true" face? pants wetting scary!

Trilogy of terror 2 is from 1996, the one I saw was in the mid to late 70s, so unless i have the ability to see the future it simply can't be that movie. The dead of night had the SAME story, only difference is I believe the child is named Timmy in that one, but as you can see here [imdb.com] its the same story, complete with mother called son back from grave. In fact i think the picture on the box is the kid as he is starting to change, although from what I remember with each flash of lightning he becomes more and mo

Both are Mature. The title and summary on slashdot *gasp* are completely wrong. Mature titles are fine in the US. The problem was that in Europe they use a different system in which US Mature titles were getting wound up in the equivalent of US's AO rating.

So M rated games were always fine, it's the European system which lumps the sex games in with the Mature games that caused the kerfuffle.

I've found home in windows 8. Yes, the interface takes a couple days to get used to initially, but after that the thing is so mindbogglingly responsive that I wouldn't want anything else. I *really* like it.

I've been a big fan of Linux and Mac for many years, and have owned many of both types of PCs, and I can say that Windows 8 is just -really- good.

Windows 7 was also very very fast when it was first released. Then after a few months/years of usage, it slows to a crawl. Is it self programmed obsolescence or does Windows naturally drifts towards slower and slower performance?

It's usually all the crap you've downloaded, installed, fragmented, etc, that slows it down. If you installed one program on the machine and did nothing but that, the machine would be just as fast in 20 years as it is today. We have a windows 3.11 machine still running at work. It's a 486SX/25 installed in 1993 but it's still snappy as hell. You should see the heatsink I had to cobble together after the 5th fan died in an attempt to keep it alive. I smile every time I need to use it.

He has malware. Windows 7 auto defrags and has ways to protect its registry and does cleanups over time.

One of the HUGE benefits of upgrading from XP is it no longer has Windows rot. Basically the registry fragments. Overtime it gets so slow it needs to be re-imaged or if the system is ignored business users just get used to low productivity of waiting 10 minutes for their computers to boot up and waste time for 3 hours every Tuesday afternoon when mcCrappy does its scan etc.... but NOOO do not upgrade tha

Windows 7 was also very very fast when it was first released. Then after a few months/years of usage, it slows to a crawl. Is it self programmed obsolescence or does Windows naturally drifts towards slower and slower performance?

Win8 has a "refresh" option which will bring it back to initial speed without requiring a full format and reinstallation of all your crap.

Incedentally, I've had several macs, and still have one, and they do the same thing. Apple used to encourage people to reinstall OSX once a year to refresh it back to peak performance. Not sure where they stand on it now. I know my wife's macbook pro from two years ago runs like a relative dog now. Needs a wipe in a big way...

It's encouraging to see that MS is willing to see reason on this count. I happen to like Win8 quite a bit, and their initial "ban" on M rated content made me very nervous about the long term viability of the platform for me.

The change, though, will take some time to go into effect. The games that had been caught in this net still won't be available as the Windows Store launches with Windows 8 today. Leblond said the plan is to flip the switch around December - definitely before the new year.

Wait until December to flip the switch? Why not flip the switch now? Is this what we are to expect from this platform?

So what you are saying is that you are willing to accept censorship about what apps you can run, in turn for a working operating system, even if alternatives are available? That must be some operating system then, that you are willing to trade.

Seriously fixed by December? In the mean time a flagship product with an ailing store and developer base is suffering. How could it take so long?

I work for what I can only consider to be the most bureaucratic red tape laden company outside of the government. I once needed to request a purchase requisition, get it approved by my line manager, forward it to a procurement officer, then take the resulting purchase order and fax it to a company all for a $2 lightbulb. It takes me months to get even the simplest of things done. However if something affects production, public perception, or profits rest assured everyone will be standing in line to ensure the red tape is machetied down before it even rises.

To me it sounds more like MS found out nobody even knows there IS a store run by them, or at least nobody gave even half a shit on the PC platform since, well, there are already established platforms and people ain't forced to jump their "Games for Windows" hoops to play.

So they needed something that made people at least TALK about that store. And, behold, it succeeded.

Windows 7 is a mature, well tested operating system. Windows 8 has just been born, and is not ready to confront the world as an independent adult. Underscoring this immaturity is a desire to dress in Children's Clothing [pcmag.com].

Yeah, that's a valid question to which I want a confirmation. Does this OS prohibit all games that aren't downloaded from the "approved" site? I don't think so, but don't know for sure. I've got several games (not a big gamer) and, what, do they not then run if I upgrade to 8? I have to rebuy them at this approved site in order to keep playing them? Makes no sense, but then neither does worrying about what the official game store from usoft may or may not approve when games bought anywhere can run on th

Didn't anyone else read the original guideline that said games couldn't be in the store if they were *over* M or PEGI? Even the original source article (but not the blog posted here) updated with emphasis from MS on the "over" part.

The only good thing about this story is that maybe non-techie people will realize that when you let the OS vendor dictate what you can do with the hardware you bought to run their product on, they will ALWAYS use that ability against you.

Consoles, Apple, and now Windows- how many times do we have to learn the same lesson?